It was about six or seven years ago I started doing holiday baking. This "tradition" started partly by my anguish not being able to find pastries I liked and inspired by a good friend's generosity. Year after year, she always sends a box of Christmas cookies during the holidays and all of them are exquisitely … Continue reading Holiday Baking

Happy belated New Year, everyone! It has been awhile since I post. Perhaps it is insolence, imaginary busyness, or a combination of everything, but stay assured that I am still baking, knitting, and doing other crafts. Though I do enjoy writing, it is a laborious process as I am an overwriter. I need to let the … Continue reading New Year and goals

This post has been sitting on the dashboard since 2014, and for some reason, I never got around to edit and publish it. It might sound odd but it has become my little tradition to make a Stollen from scratch for the past three years, and I am glad to report that the bread has … Continue reading My Stollen Adventure: The Making

Here is my confession: I have not become interested in madeleines until recently. This popular and famous cake did not obtain my attention until couple weeks ago. Having a full-time job and going to school do not leave much play time for me, but there are certain times I just feel the urge to do … Continue reading Oh Madeleines…

A bit late to the game, but Happy belated New Year! I totally ate my crafting resolution in 2014 in terms of experimenting with new recipes, partly because I have started a second master's program. The most recent semester was quite brutal, given that all my classes involved intensive research; hence, no time to bake. … Continue reading Christmas baking 2014

This post has been under preparation for a long time; in fact, I started this draft since December of last year but did not get to finished until now. Originally, I wanted to combine both the background and the making of the Stollen in one post, but I decided that would be too long. In … Continue reading My Stollen Adventure: History

I do realize that I have overlooked this blog for way too long and I am also a bit late to set goals for 2014. To be honest, New Year Resolutions and I are never friends because I often experience the frustration of not being able to attain the lofty goals I set at the … Continue reading Goals for 2014

With the weather becoming colder, there is more motivation to knit; however, I personally do not wear scarves or cowls. Often time my neck will become warm too quickly that I remove it immediately. To my solace, not everyone is as finicky as me. One of the janitors at work saw me knitting and asked … Continue reading Turkish stitch cowl

The frequency of posting on this blog has been slowed compared to before. Part of the reason is that some of the cards or knitted items I made is meant for friends with later birthdays. It would be otherwise ruining surprises ahead of time. This scarf/shawl is called Saroyan, inspired by Dr. Camille Saroyan in Bones, a … Continue reading Scarf/shawl for autumn

Probably to make up for the time I have not blogged here, I spent most of the time in the kitchen this past Saturday. Here is what I have made:1. Labneh: it is a vegetable yogurt dip, topped with olive oil. Because the yogurt is strained, it tastes extra tangy, couple nicely with diced golden … Continue reading It is one of those days